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Nothing ensures a night of excitement quite like an endorsement from The Biebs. Here’s the latest promo for the 19th annual MTV Movie Awards, featuring host Aziz Ansari and pop sensation Justin Bieber.

Tom Cruise, Cameron Diaz, Zac Efron, Jonah Hill, Jessica Biel, Bradley Cooper, Steve Carell, Miranda Cosgrove, Shaun White, Vanessa Hudgens, Sean “Diddy” Combs, and Russell Brand will present popcorn statues at next month’s ceremony in Universal City. In addition, Christina Aguilera will return to the stage for a performance from her new album Bionic (available June 8) and Katy Perry will perform her hit summer anthem “California Gurls.”

Voting in all categories is open through Saturday, June 5 at MovieAwards.MTV.com.

The 2010 MTV Movie Awards air LIVE on MTV Sunday, June 6 @ 9PM ET/8PM C.

The much-talked-about Dell Streak is finally scheduled for release, albeit exclusively to the UK’s O2 network for the time being. The 5-inch touchscreen device is billed as slotting in “between traditional smartphones and larger-screen tablets” and features a 1GHz processor, 2GB of internal memory and runs on Google’s Android operating system…
Continue Reading UK release confirmed for Dell’s Streak tablet

Tags: Android,
Dell,
Smartphone,
Snapdragon,
Tablet,
Wireless

Related Articles:

• Dell redesigns Inspiron Mini 10
• Downsized Dell: the Inspiron Mini 9
• The Vega touchscreen tablet from ICD
• New Latitude laptops from Dell
• Dell Inspiron Mini 12 Netbook/Ultraportable hybrid
• Google gives sneak peek at Android 2.0

While the Marketplace continues to grow and it gets harder and harder to weed through all the new applications, we aim to make your experience as smooth as possible. And so, we bring to you another week of applications that we use.

This is a post by Android Central. It is sponsored by the Android Central Accessories Store

A group of new blogs have launched at NYU’s Science, Health, and Environmental Reporting Program. In my capacity as Visiting Scholar there, I helped some of the students think through how to work blogs into their training at NYU. Mainly, I urged them to think about how to not be boring. I suggested they set up blogs that they themselves would actually want to write, and that weren’t like a lot of other blogs.

And they did! Kids these days.

So check out the whole blog roll, and offer your deeply insightful and constructive critiques. They’re waiting for you.

by Jonathan Hiskes.

My request for President
Obama is simple, really: Dust off the secret presidential SCUBA suit, invite
the Senate’s biggest oil-industry shills on a “fact-finding mission” to the
Gulf (promise shrimp cocktails if necessary), and use them to plug up BP’s
hole.

Failing that, Obama
could start talking about the connection between the oil gusher, climate change,
our crippling national dependency on fossil fuels, and the need for a wholesale
shift to clean energy.

Fortunately, after a
tepid defense of offshore drilling and a maddening
silence about the big energy picture, he’s
finally starting to do just that, talking about renewable energy and the Gulf
fiasco in the same speeches.

From
a San Francisco fundraiser yesterday:

The reason that folks are now having to go down a mile deep
into the ocean, and then another mile drilling into the ground below, that is
because the easy oil fields and oil wells are gone, or they’re starting to
diminish.

That tells us that we’ve got to have a long-term energy
strategy in this country. And we’ve got to start cultivating solar and wind and
biodiesel. And we’ve got to increase energy efficiency across our economy in
our buildings and our automobiles.

Today at
the Solyndra solar panel plant in Fremont, Calif:

Climate change poses a threat to our way of life—in
fact, we’re already beginning to see its profound and costly impact.  And the spill in the Gulf, which is just
heartbreaking, only underscores the necessity of seeking alternative fuel
sources … 

Fifteen years ago, the United States produced 40 percent of
the world’s solar panels—40 percent.  That was just 15 years ago. 
By 2008, our share had fallen to just over 5 percent.  I don’t know about
you, but I’m not prepared to cede American leadership in this industry, because
I’m not prepared to cede America’s leadership in the global economy. 

So that’s why we’ve placed a big emphasis on clean energy …
But we’ve still got more work to do, and that’s why I’m going to keep fighting
to pass comprehensive energy and climate legislation in Washington. We’re
going to try to get it done this year, because what we want to do is create
incentives that will fully unleash the potential for jobs and growth in this
sector.

“We’re going to try to
get it done this year” doesn’t presage a full-court press.  But it’s a step in the right direction. 

Next up, Obama
is set
to announce new offshore drilling regulations on Thursday—another
opportunity to talk fundamentals. On Friday, he’ll
travel to the Gulf to prove his commitment to stopping the bleeding gash in
the Gulf. It’s his best opportunity yet to influence how the country talks
about the state of its energy system.

Lots of smart thinkers
on the left have been arguing that it’s naïve and ineffectual to demand that
Obama somehow “do more” to get the country on a progressive track; he can’t change
the country—and certainly can’t change the minds of intransigent senators—on his own.

But the BP spill might
be big enough to alter the dynamics. Americans can now see with their own eyes
what’s so wrong with our energy system.  A
new CBS
poll found a marked drop in public support for domestic offshore drilling-down
17 percent since two summers ago-meaning that more Americans now oppose offshore
exploration than support it. There’s an opening for fundamental change. 

“Honestly, I have not
reacted to anything with this much impotent despair since 9/11,” writes an
Andrew Sullivan reader. “Not even Abu Ghraib and our collective, in effect,
non-reaction to it made me feel more negative about the likely course of our
society in the remaining decades of my lifetime.”

Oof-that sounds like a
citizen ready for a bold plan. Obama, by directing the media’s and the public’s
attention to the need for a massive energy shift, can give the issue more of a
boost than it’s gotten in decades.  He
can make the point that climate and clean-energy legislation is desperately
needed, now.  If Americans follow his
lead, they could—yes, I’m being hopeful here—put enough pressure on other
elected officials (senators) to get moving on an energy bill and other critical
policy changes. I get all tingly thinking about it.

 

Related Links:

The federal government needs to take command of the disaster response

How would you stop the Gulf oil leak?

Will Obama admin allow Shell Oil to do to Arctic waters what BP did to the Gulf?

A recent study found that poor folks – households earning under $13,000 per year – spend about 9% of all their income on lottery tickets.

Jonah Lehrer:

The study neatly illuminates the sad positive feedback loop of lotteries. The games naturally appeal to poor people, which causes them to spend disproportionate amounts of their income on lotteries, which helps keep them poor, which keeps them buying tickets.

I wonder what would happen if on a certain number of the losing scratch-off cards, scratching off the latex ink won you free personal finance and budget management services.

Lotteries [The Frontal Cortex] (Thanks to Jim!)
The impact of narrow decision bracketing on lottery play [Journal of Risk and Uncertainty]

by Brad Johnson.

This post is co-authored by Tom
Kenworthy.

There are obvious limits to how much control the federal government
can exert over the frantic and so far hapless effort to stem the
catastrophic oil eruption that threatens the entire Gulf of Mexico with
ecological devastation. As Coast Guard Commandant Thad Allen said
Monday, the government does not have the equipment or technical
expertise to simply shove aside BP and its industry partners a month
after the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon rig off the coast of
Louisiana. “To push BP out of the way, it would raise the question, to
replace them with what?” Allen said.

The Obama administration’s embattled and frustrated Interior
Secretary Ken Salazar, who on Sunday had threatened to do the pushing,
recognized the sobering reality 24 hours later. “This administration has
done everything we can possibly do to make sure that we push BP to stop
the spill and to contain the impact,” Salazar said. “We have also been
very clear that there are areas where BP and the private sector are the
ones who must continue to lead the efforts with government oversight,
such as the deployment of private sector technology 5,000 feet below the
ocean’s surface to kill the well.”

But if government has little choice but to keep the perpetrator on
the job at the immediate crime scene, it does have a choice when it
comes to operations beyond the urgent task of quelling the erupting
well. BP will necessarily remain in charge of plugging the hole; but the
federal and state governments in the gulf must take greater charge of
containing the onshore ecological impacts.

This requires a greater mobilization than exists today, and
Washington needs to send the message that it is in full command of the
disaster response with the following actions:

One highly visible leader at the White House should lead the
command and coordination at the cabinet level between the Department
of Homeland Security, the Department of the Interior, the
Department of Commerce, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration, the Department of Energy, the EPA, the Department of
Justice, the White House Office of Energy and Climate Policy, the White
House Office of Science and Technology, and the Department of Defense.
Two excellent choices for this role would be Vice President Joe Biden or
energy advisor Carol Browner. This leader should also work directly
with the affected states’ governors.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency should be in charge of
onshore coastal recovery and disaster response, assisted by the Army
Corps of Engineers. The National
Guard should be fully deployed under the control of each state’s
governor, with Army units if necessary. The EPA, NOAA, and U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service should exercise relevant oversight. And any environmental
and disaster response contractors working for BP should instead
work directly for the federal government.

The federal government should clearly be in charge of
surface-water recovery and maritime disaster response. The Vessels
of Opportunity and other maritime contractors now working for BP
should be under contract with the federal government, including research
vessels. The Coast Guard with the EPA, NOAA, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service oversight should manage dispersant
use for cleanup.

The Environmental Protection Agency should immediately bar
BP from new federal contracts-including drilling in federally
controlled oil fields-because of its repeated environmental crimes.

The State Department should continue to reach out to other
nations that have experience with disastrous oil spills to see if
assistance and ideas are available. This should be a
government-to-government effort, not one undertaken by private
companies.

Claims for damages and lost revenues should be put under the
authority of the U.S. Coast Guard
National Pollution Funds Center. The scope of this disaster far
exceeds the NPFC’s traditional resources, and other federal, state, and
local claims processing resources must therefore be brought to bear,
particularly from the Coast Guard’s sister agency FEMA.

The EPA, the Justice Department, the Internal Revenue Service,
and other law enforcement branches of the federal, state, and local
government should exercise subpoena authority to seize
or monitor relevant communications and data collection, and assets
if necessary.

The EPA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
should begin a health-monitoring program for the most at risk
populations so there is a baseline from which to measure health
complications from the spill and cleanup.

Federal agencies, not BP, should handle spill response hotlines
for volunteers, technology
ideas, affected wildlife, and others. Full call records need to be
logged with incident reports and technology ideas presented publicly on
dynamic websites.

BP is required as the responsible party for this apocalyptic disaster
to provide full and instant funding for the response by the federal,
state, and local governments and their contractors. BP personnel and
equipment being used for disaster response in the Gulf should be put
under governmental control during the crisis.

BP’s funding should come in the form of an escrow account that draws
on BP’s $100
billion in capital reserves, without limit. The federal government
should require BP to use its first quarter 2010 profits—$5
billion—to establish the escrow account. Congress needs to pass the
Big Oil Liability Bailout Prevention Act, S. 3305, to lift the
liability limit to $10 billion.

The Center for American Progress also supports a full moratorium on
new leases or new drilling for all companies until the commission issues
its report and recommendations. The Department of Interior has approved
at least 17 new
permits and 19 environmental waivers since the Deepwater Horizon rig
explosion.

Congress and the administration must meanwhile take further steps to
end our dependence on big oil. The administration should beef up federal
research and development efforts into how to prevent oil spills and
better contain them if they occur. The federal government should
establish additional protection for continental shelf areas beyond just
the three miles states can control. Congress should cut tax loopholes
and other handouts to big oil companies, which would save $45 billion
over 10 years—money that can be spent on investing in a clean energy
economy instead. And clean energy legislation that caps the oil and coal
pollution that is heating the atmosphere and acidifying the oceans is
long overdue.

Related Links:

Obama’s finally connecting the Gulf spill and clean energy. Champagne time?

How would you stop the Gulf oil leak?

Will Obama admin allow Shell Oil to do to Arctic waters what BP did to the Gulf?

Rumors of John Travolta and Kelly Preston expecting twins set out. Star Magazine was the first to report that Kelly was pregnant, which was right, and now reports that she is expecting twin boys, but are the right this time? The truth is – no they are not expecting twin boys or twins at all. Sam Mast, the couple’s rep says, “Totally false. They are not expecting twins.” The couple has been mourning for the loss of their 16 year old son, Jett, at the beginning of last year after he had suffered a seizure. The couple’s two dogs were also killed in an accident at Maine’s Bangor International Airport earlier this month. However, the 56-year-old actor and 47-year-old actress still have their daughter Ella, 10; and are expecting a new addition to their family.

John’s co-stars congratulate him for the announcement that he and his wife are expecting. Hugh Jackman congratulates the couple stating, “I’m very thrilled for him. I know John – he’s an amazing dad and that’s one lucky kid. I’m very, very, very happy for them. Very excited.” British actress Amber Rose Revah, Travolta’s From Paris with Love costar, said “I think it’s wonderful. John is a really caring person. I’m just happy for him because I think with all that’s happened to him over the last year, he deserved something good.”

Related posts:

1. John Travolta and Kelly Preston expecting a new child
2. John Travolta to be a Father Again
3. Travolta Couple is having their Newborn for the Third Time!

Here’s a good reason to tune into tonight’s ninth season finale of American Idol: The original Idol powerhouse Kelly Clarkson and Season 3 champ Fantasia will perform a duet, “Together We Are One,” as a final send-off to departing Idol judge Simon Cowell!

The American Idol finale — featuring finalists Crystal Bowersox and Lee DeWyze –kicks off tonight @ 8PM on Fox.

Filed under: Hatchback, Bentley

The Porsche 918 Spyder might’ve been our pick of the Geneva Motor Show, but the consensus on which vehicle we’d drive home was unanimous: The Bentley Continental-based Flying Star.

As many of you have pointed out, we’ve got a undying love of all things shooting brake, so the Flying Star lit up all the right nerve endings. And apparently, we aren’t alone.

Car and Driver spoke with Stuart McCullough during the launch of the Mulsanne and when asked about the possibility of a Bentley-built hatch, the Volkswagen board member said, “We have an idea in the back of our minds that we may yet bring to market.”

That’s far from a confirmation and it’s doubtful that a Continental-derived shooting brake is coming, particularly when you consider that the GT is due for a refresh. However, something based on the Mulsanne’s underpinnings could replace the aging Continental, and Bentley is sure to be considering other body styles when that model arrives within the next few years.

[Source: Car and Driver]

Report: Bentley says shooting brake a possibility? originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 26 May 2010 18:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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How does Grandma stay connected to you? Buddy Radio hopes to help the elderly by giving them an old school gadget—a basic radio—that combines new school technology—social networks—so they can broadcast their mood and ask for help. More »










Facebook – Online Communities – Social Networking – Twitter – Radio

Posted by Rick Pearson at 6:10 p.m.; updated at 6:46 p.m. with Biggins’ response

For 17 years, Elmhurst’s Bob Biggins has been a reliable House Republican vote, but his decision Tuesday to join Democrats in favor of a $4 billion pension borrowing plan is earning the lame-duck lawmaker some blowback from GOP officials.

Biggins, who decided not to seek re-election this fall, was called out by state Republican Chairman Pat Brady today as having “some explaining to do.” Brady contends there are questions of whether Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn made an “offer in exchange” for Biggins’ vote.

Biggins did not attend a closed-door caucus of House Republicans prior to the vote, but instead was in the governor’s office. Biggins, however, has denied being offered anything in return for his vote.



But colleagues, who had locked themselves in opposition to the pension borrowing plan, weren’t happy with Biggins, long a protégé of former House Republican leader Lee Daniels of Elmhurst. State Rep. Jim Sacia, R-Pecatonica, saw Biggins being interviewed by reporters in Springfield following Tuesday’s vote and said loudly and angrily, “Two-faced son of a (expletive).”



Biggins was not the only retiring Republican House member to vote for the plan, which passed with a bare majority of 71 votes. Rep. Bill Black of Danville, a 24-year state lawmaker and member of the House GOP leadership, also voted for the measure.

Brady, the state GOP chairman, said Black was not singled out for criticism because he attended the House GOP caucus while Biggins skipped it for a meeting in Quinn’s office.

“That’s what raises questions,” Brady said. “I think questions have been raised. We just want to know.”

Biggins said Brady should call him for his reasons for voting instead of issuing critical news releases.



"When the GOP has the guts to call me and ask me why I voted for it, I’ll provide them with the answer for this fiscally responsible vote," Biggins said. "The Republican position was fiscally unsound."



Biggins said he was asked to meet with Quinn chief of staff Jerry Stermer during the House GOP caucus and did so.  "Nothing was offered and he didn’t even try to talk me into" voting for it, Biggins said.

The Motorola Shadow has not exactly been living up to its name lately. We caught a few choice glimpses of it at the end of April, then a shot of its user manual was splashed across the internet, just yesterday it was caught pumping iron in Washington, and finally today we have it posing on a desk for all to see.

This most recent photo comes courtesy of longtime Howard Forums user wnrussell, the same gentleman that brought us the user manual image last week.

While we have now seen almost every square inch of the Shadow (or the Extreme/Xtreme) the specs haven’t quite come into focus yet. As wnrussell by all appearances has the device in hand — rather than simply having some time with the device prior to its proper owner laying claim to it — I’m slightly more inclined to trust his version of what is going on inside the newest member of the Droid family.

Combining his newest report with our previous information we come up with these specs:

• Verizon
• 4.1″  TFT FWVGA screen
• 720 MHz OMAP 3630 Processor
• 8 GB of internal storage
• 8 MP Camera
• 720p Video Recording
• mini-HDMI out
• Wifi 802.11 b/g/n
• Bluetooth 2.1
• MicroSD support up to 32GB
• ~9mm at the bottom of the device flaring to ~11mm at the top
• Android 2.1 or possibly 2.2 with a new version of MOTOBLUR
• Launch window: July-August

Other than the bump in screen size this doesn’t seem like anything to make a new Incredible owner too jealous, but if Motorola has managed to match the sturdy build quality of the Droid with the speed of the Incredible they are at least offering Verizon customers a compelling alternative.

Related Posts

• Verizon’s next Motorola Droid sequel comes out of the shadows
• The Motorola Shadow re-emerges
• Motorola Droid successor coming to Verizon later this year
• LG Ally commercial leaks, Verizon launch pending soon
• Verizon set to launch an Incredible device “really soon” – April 29th

It’s been blazin’ in New York all day. I’ve got two Vornados on me, a minimal amount of clothing, and I’m wearing a coldpack on my head. So, in the spirit of temperature abatement, I am delighted to share this printable 20% off anything coupon for Cold Stone Creamery, which I would totally use if everything on their menu didn’t have a gazillion calories. [via Dealnews]

The Chicago voucher bill, SB2494, which failed to pass earlier this month in the Illinois House, could return as soon as Wednesday evening.

Late Wednesday afternoon, House sponsor Kevin Joyce filed an amendment to the proposal that would divert nearly $100 million to private and religious schools in Chicago.

The amendment is clearly intended to gain the votes needed to pass the voucher bill, which fell 12 votes short of passage on May 5.  Though the vote was unofficial, you can see the video of how the House members voted here:  http://bit.ly/bD8ARE

ALL IEA MEMBERS ARE URGED TO CALL THEIR STATE REPRESENTATIVES IN SPRINGFIELD NOW!

1. CALL THE SWITCHBOARD – 217/782-2000
2. ASK TO BE CONNECTED WITH THE OFFICE OF YOUR STATE REPRESENTATIVE.
   
3. TELL THE REPRESENTATIVE (OR LEAVE A MESSAGE) THAT HE/SHE MUST VOTE NO ON THE CHICAGO VOUCHER BILL.

SB2494 would divert almost $100 million dollars at a time when schools are considering laying off thousands of teachers and staff and cutting programs for students because of underfunding.   This is unacceptable.  PLEASE CALL NOW.

We will keep you informed of new developments.

The Nissan LEAF is the world’s first truly mass-market, affordable electric car and there are plenty of folks who’ve plunked down the $99 reservation fee with plans to be one of the first to own one when they start going on sale at the end of this year. But, from those intrepid early adopters, I constantly hear a deep-seated worry that dealers will try and squeeze some extra dollars out of them because of the incredible groundswell of demand.

Given the lack of clarity on the subject to this point, the worry is justifiable. After all, we saw it with the Prius back in the day, no? There must be something Nissan can do to stop dealer price gouging. Well, yes, yes there is.

(more…)

It’s BMJ week (again) on NCBI ROFL! After the success of our first BMJ week, we decided to devote another week to fun articles from holiday issues of the British Medical Journal. Enjoy!

“OBJECTIVE: To investigate the risks of mild traumatic brain injury and neck injury associated with head banging, a popular dance form accompanying heavy metal music. DESIGN: Observational studies, focus group, and biomechanical analysis. PARTICIPANTS: Head bangers. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Head Injury Criterion and Neck Injury Criterion were derived for head banging styles and both popular heavy metal songs and easy listening music controls. RESULTS: An average head banging song has a tempo of about 146 beats per minute, which is predicted to cause mild head injury when the range of motion is greater than 75 degrees . At higher tempos and greater ranges of motion there is a risk of neck injury. CONCLUSION: To minimise the risk of head and neck injury, head bangers should decrease their range of head and neck motion, head bang to slower tempo songs by replacing heavy metal with adult oriented rock, only head bang to every second beat, or use personal protective equipment.”

Read the full article here.

Image: flickr/y-its-mom

Related content:
Discoblog: NCBI ROFL: Injuries due to falling coconuts.
Discoblog: NCBI ROFL: I scream! You scream! We all scream…from ice-cream headaches.
Discoblog: NCBI ROFL: Pink Floyd hallucinations: not just for druggies.

WTF is NCBI ROFL? Read our FAQ!

Bruce V. Bigelow wrote:

San Diego-based Zeebo, the game console maker backed by wireless giant Qualcomm and Brazilian video-game developer Tectoy S.A., has raised $8 million in a combination of equity, debt, and loans convertible to stock, according to a recent regulatory filing. The Zeebo consoles are available throughout Brazil and Mexico in a plan that Zeebo laid out last year. Consumers can buy inexpensive games, download them directly to the Zeebo, and access the Internet.

UNDERWRITERS AND PARTNERS

Filed under: Truck, Marketing/Advertising, Work, Chevrolet, GMC

The 2011 Chevy Silverado HD didn’t pull any punches about wanting to beat the competition, but it might just pull everything else. In case you missed any of its maybe-or-maybe-not best-in-class numbers, The General has put together a nifty little animation for you that trumpets all of its heavy duty points. And it does a much better job of it than the Dude Perfect spot did…

However, since it is well known that size matters a great deal in the world of pickup trucks, you can expect Ford and Dodge to be unveiling bigger trumpets soon enough. Follow the jump to see the Transformer-esuqe spot.

[Source: General Motors via PickupTrucks.com]

Continue reading Video: GM wants you to see a few things about the Silverado HD

Video: GM wants you to see a few things about the Silverado HD originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 26 May 2010 17:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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